DougWantsALeaf said:
I personally find using the timer as easy as anything, and usually wake up to it within 2% of what I was aiming for charge wise. Veryuch good enough for 99% of use cases from my end.
The charge timer certainly has value in delaying a charge until I want it to happen. If the battery was resistant to degradation due to time at high SOC then the timer alone would be acceptable. And while Nissan/AESC have been improving the cell robustness, this is still a significant concern. Consider the following cases that could lead to a unnecessary charge to 100%, possibly followed by a long resting time at 100%:
1) I make a mistake in setting the charge timer (like set p.m. instead of a.m.)
2) I accidentally leave the car plugged in a 2nd night when I didn't drive it the previous day.
3) I plan to unplug the car, but am unavoidably detained from returning to the car (emergency).
4) Someone more careless than me drives the car and just plugs it in regardless of SOC.
5) I want the cell balancing to run periodically. The BMS could be smart enough to do this at 80% if it knew that 80% was the end of charge. But with a Leaf, you have to charge it to 100% and leave it there for over at least a couple of hours.
Plus the simple frustration of having to fiddle with the charge timer, buried down in the menus, to hit the charge I want. And I haven't yet covered the increased risk that I might forget to charge when I need to. I find myself checking SOC almost every time I pull into the garage and often deciding not to plug in because it's probably good enough. But what if I forgot I have an unusual trip tomorrow? Or just the habit of intentionally not plugging in causes me to be more likely to accidentally not plug in when I need it. Ugh!
The Leaf would be much better with a selectable charge termination level (in % SOC). Set it and forget it. Plug it in anytime or every time, without needing to engage your brain or teach your family. Lower effort. Fewer mistakes. Without selectable charge termination you have to decide - Will I put in the effort to manage SOC less than 100%? Or will I just charge to 100% and suffer the aggressive SOH loss.